


my boys

by garbagemanmilo, leedeeloo



Category: All Elite Wrestling
Genre: Death in Childbirth, Grief/Mourning, Hemorrhaging, M/M, Men Crying, Mentions of Death, Widower Judas Reaves, this is a fic for a very specific au me and lee came up with, this uses orange’s real first name, trent’s a real one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:15:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26808739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/garbagemanmilo/pseuds/garbagemanmilo, https://archiveofourown.org/users/leedeeloo/pseuds/leedeeloo
Summary: Judas and Jim take a journey to Judas’ late wife’s grave. Emotions run high, and both men talk them out to Marissa’s gravestone.
Relationships: Luchasaurus/Orange Cassidy
Comments: 6
Kudos: 4





	1. blessing

When Judas pulls into the cemetery parking lot, Jim is a bundle of nervous energy. He’s only ever been to his own family’s burial sites, and now he’s… going to meet his fiancé’s late wife. It’s nerve-wracking, for sure, but he takes a deep breath, holds it, and exhales as he opens the car door to get out.

Both men walk in silence, with Judas holding Jim’s hand, rubbing his thumb against the back of it, and they stop at a beautiful marble headstone. The name “Marissa Reaves” is engraved in it, along with “mother of two, wife to one lucky man”. It makes Jim’s heart skip a beat to read it, makes him a little light-headed. Judas simply kneels, lays the bouquet of tulips on the center of the grave, and gently extracts his hand from Jim’s. 

“Would you mind if… if I spoke with her alone for a moment?” Judas asks, and Jim melts at the sight of his fiancé, looking embarrassed like he was just caught stealing a candy bar. “Of course,” he says, and steps back a few paces, and watches Judas kneel down again and place his hand on top of the headstone. 

Jim can’t understand the conversation Judas holds with his wife, but he can hear the cadence in his fiancé’s voice rising and falling gently, he even catches a chuckle, no doubt recounting a story about Marko being the little hellion he is. Jim doesn’t realize he’s teared up until he feels the warmth on his cheeks. He rushes to wipe them away before Judas turns back and sees him.

Judas rises after a few minutes, dusting the knees of his pants, and looks over his shoulder at Jim, motioning for the smaller man to stand beside him again. Jim obliges and takes Judas’ hand the second he’s close enough. “I’d actually like to introduce you to someone, Marissa. He’s- he’s very special to me, and, uh- his name is Jim,” he says, and squeezes Jim’s hand gently. 

“He’s been helping me with the boys, and- and we’re getting married in February, um…” here, Judas struggles with his words. “He’s a wonderful man, and he’s been a wonderful father to our kids, Marissa. I wish you could see them, Jack’s gotten so big.” Jim smiles, a little weak, and adds, “Marko’s still got a little ways to go, but he’ll catch up,” and Judas huffs out a laugh, pulls Jim closer.

There’s a moment of tenderness when Judas and Jim’s eyes meet, the love between them. It makes Jim’s mouth dry up, makes his eyes start watering again. “Hey, um… could I talk with her in private, too?” he asks, a little nervous about crossing any boundaries, not sure where the line lies. But Judas’ eyes sort of sparkle, and he presses a warm, chaste kiss to Jim’s cheek and then steps back, putting a good amount of distance between his soon-to-be husband and his wife’s grave.

Jim clears his throat before kneeling just like Judas does. A bead of cold sweat rolls down the back of his neck, but he doesn’t pay any attention, instead placing a hand to the cool marble headstone. “Marissa,” he begins, then swallows. “It’s an honor to finally meet you, Judas- he talks about you so much that I feel like I already know you.” He breaks off, chuckles, and wipes underneath his eye. “Judas is… amazing. Marko and Jack are beautiful. I got the chance to see a photo of you, and Jack is the spitting image of you. And they’re both so sweet, they- they call me papa.” 

He pauses, takes in a shuddering breath, drops his head down, lets the tears drip from his face. “I wanted to ask for your blessing before our wedding. I love Judas, and he loves me, and he still loves you, and- I dunno, it just felt  _ right _ to ask. That’s all.” Jim stands again, knees trembling just a bit, and he walks back to Judas, who holds out his arms. The smaller man goes gladly, hugging his fiancé tightly. “Thank you for coming with me,” Judas murmurs, and Jim tries to laugh, but it turns into a sob. “It’s my pleasure, Jude.”


	2. grieving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judas loses his wife.

Judas stepped out for only a second. Just to take a breather, to calm down from the frantic nature of the delivery room, where Marissa and his newborn son were resting. He was leaning against the wall, a few paces down the hallway, eyes closed. Judas felt good- wound up, no doubt, but  _ good- _ and then there was the calmoring of ten or so doctors and nurses rushing down, into the open doorway of a room.

Marissa’s room.

He ran in, shouldered his way through the throng of medical professionals. He wanted to see his wife, needed to see her as one doctor was shouting out that her vitals were dropping, that they needed to get her intravenous meds to combat the hemorrhaging. Judas managed to shove his way to Marissa’s bed, where she lay, pale and unresponsive as a nurse performed chest compressions, pumping up and down, up and down. And then someone grabbed his arm, dragged him back out of the room, away from his beautiful wife, the mother of his children.

It was the last time he saw her alive. When he was finally allowed to return, a white sheet covered Marissa, and she was disconnected from all the monitors surrounding her bed. Judas looked down at the bed, the faint outline of his wife’s body under the sheet, then into the bassinet beside it. His little boy, pink and wrinkled and so,  _ so _ tiny, swaddled expertly by the hospital staff. “Can I-- I’m allowed to hold him, right?” Judas asked, voice soft and raspy. He felt rubbed raw as the nurses, red-eyed and exhausted, nodded, watched him reach into the bassinet and cradle his son.

“I have another one at home. His name’s Marko, um, he’ll be two in three months,” he said, adjusted his hold on the infant, resting his son in the crook of his arm. Running a finger from the newborn’s forehead, down the bridge of his nose, Judas felt tears prick the corners of his eyes. “Too young to remember her, probably,” he whispered, and he was at once swarmed by three young nurses, who put trembling hands to his shoulders and back and gave their sincerest condolences to him. 

The nurses showed Judas to his room; on the other side of the hospital from where Marissa died in, with a cot and a different bassinet for his boy. “We’ll be back later with your dinner, sir,” one nurse explained- only twenty-something, and obviously shaken. Judas nodded, thanked her, and allowed himself to cry once she left. Looking down at his little boy through hot tears, he was struck hard with the situation. He was a now-single father, a widower, with two young sons. “How am I gonna  _ do _ this, bud?” he asked the fussing bundle in the bassinet, but his newborn couldn’t tell him. 

Trent arrived at almost midnight. “Told them I was your brother,” he panted, face shining with sweat from running up the flight of stairs that led to Judas’ room. The younger man inclined his head towards the bassinet, hands on his hips, expression soft. “Hey, man,” he said, and Judas found himself in Trent’s arms, being held and comforted like a baby. “She’s  _ gone _ ,” he whispered, tried his hardest to hold back the flood of tears, and Trent only hummed, rubbing Judas’ back. And then the baby started crying.

Cradling his newborn- Judas  _ still _ hadn’t named him- he attempted to quiet his boy’s wails, using every trick he knew, from when Marko was a baby to things read in parenting books, but it didn’t seem to work, and he was tired, emotionally drained dry. He wanted to  _ sleep _ , forget that he was on his own with a new baby and an almost two-year old, and that once the paperwork went through he was going to bury his  _ wife _ , his Marissa. Trent motioned for Judas to hand over the infant, took him carefully and slowly, began rocking him and singing quietly. Soothing, gentle, and he wiped his eyes, took a deep breath. “What about Jack?” Trent asked as he brushed his thumb over the little boy’s cheek, and Judas felt the lump in his throat loosen, grow smaller. Just a little. 

“Jack,” Judas repeated, and looking down at the infant, it did fit. It felt right. “ _ Jack _ ,” he said, with more conviction, and Trent nodded. “Jack Reaves,” the younger man cooed over Jack’s screams, and Judas sighed, more relieved than anything. 

**Author's Note:**

> lee is the co-creator because xie helped me create this au so xie deserve the credit


End file.
